Curling club shows appreciation

By Brady Grove, Times Reporter

Strathmore’s curling season is underway, and the Strathmore and District Curling Club (SDCC) showed its gratitude to its sponsors and to the community by hosting a season-opening club cabaret and sponsor appreciation night on Nov. 10.
“Without the combination of partnership with the town, sponsors and volunteers, it’d be pretty difficult to make ends meet,” said SDCC president Craig Koch. “We pretty much need all those (volunteers and sponsors) in the wheel to make things work.”
The event was an open house format, with food tables set up in the lounge area. Local band Pistol Noon provided a variety of classic, blues and country rock for the attendees to dance and groove to.
According to Koch, the curling community has very healthy support and participation. The men’s league has at least 12 teams playing every Monday, and the ladies league, also with 12 teams, plays on Tuesday nights.
Mixed league play goes Thursday and Friday nights, and there is a drop-in league that goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m.
But it’s not just the adult leagues that are thriving – the younger generation has stepped onto the ice in their best effort to place the rock on the button. The junior league is divided into two different age groups – 6-12 and 12-18 – and has seen strong participation numbers.
“We’re pretty much maxed out in our junior program; you can only have 64 kids and we have 58 or 60,” said Koch.
The club’s bonspiels begin in the new year with the first being the Shorty Bonspiel on Jan. 6, 2019.
For more information, visit their website (strathmorecurling.ca).